Return to the roots

KOCHI: Niranj Suresh’s entry into playback singing stood out because of the western influence in his music. He delivered hits like ‘Roshomon’, ‘Poomuthole’, ‘Thechille Penne’, and recently the Telugu song ‘Boggu Ganilo’. The talented young singer made use of the pandemic break to explore music more and that resulted in his first single ‘Thottampattu’, which he calls a ‘Victory Song’.

Thottam Pattu is a prominent vocal ballad that’s performed during the Theyyam ritual in North Malabar. “We undergo a lot of struggles and obstacles to get successful. However, we tend to forget those once we achieve our dreams. To move forward in life we need to remember the path we travelled. This is what I’m trying to convey through the song,” adds Niranj.

The lyrics were penned by Engandiyur Chandrashekaran and composed by Dr Lincoln. “I did a bit of additional composing and arrangement to the song before recording it and gave it the final shape,” says Niranj. Jayakrishnan T V cranked the camera.

Niranj, who has already directed two videos for his band Blank Planet, was quite at ease with directing this one too.  “The next song is ‘Thaniye’ written by Shabareesh Varma. The composing is done and the video shoot will begin soon. I wanted people to be familiar with my voice and playback singing helped with that. Now I wish to focus on doing independent Malayalam songs,” he says.